Equius Zahhak
Equius Zahhak is an immensely STRONG troll with a penchant for building robots and a tendency to sweat profusely. There was apparently another version of him before, but the current one arrived in-game on November 6th, 2011. He hails from the troll's home planet of Alternia. Equius currently resides in Garden Sector 14's Troll Treehive. Age: 6 solar sweeps (equivalent to roughly 13 earth years). Origins: Homestuck. App: '''Right here! '''HMD: This way! Player: 'Kyle/Carl. '''Contact: '''AIM - Glasses Demon Setting Equius is a member of a race known as trolls. The trolls are from a different universe from our own and control a vast, galaxy-spanning empire through martial conquest and technological advances. Indeed, the trolls as a race are very warlike and born to conflict. Literally, in fact, being on their own from birth and having to fend for their selves until they can prove their worth in various trials and are selected by one of various native creatures to the troll's home planet Alternia. The troll forms a bond with this creature, known as a lusus. They live in a sort of symbiosis, as the lusus protects and raises the troll, the troll must learn how to care for the animal. A young troll's trial by fire isn't complete there, however, as now the young troll must pick a suitable spot for and construct a hive of their own design (though the actual construction is done by robots left for that purpose). All of this is generally considered "training" for their future life in the empire, and if a grub does not make it, they simply weren't cut out for life. They are similarly less concerned with death than humans are in general, unless it is the death of another troll that was very close, and don't even bother to bury their dead. Alternia itself is populated almost entirely by young, as most of the adult trolls are on various other planets in the empire to solidify their hold. Young trolls often fight amongst one another, but their relationships are extremely complex. Rather than the simple concept of "love" or "hate", trolls have a "grid" of sorts for relationships. To summarize somewhat, troll relationships are 'pale', essentially the same as human love, 'pale', a sort of "best friends" arrangement with far more permanence and with an emphasis on keeping each other in line, 'ashen', a three-way relationship in which one troll mediates between two other parties, and 'caliginous', an intense rivalry that borders on hatred. Many troll relationships swing wildly between two (or more) of these quadrants. Coupled with their naturally abrasive nature, it can be a tricky subject. Troll society is divided by two complementary aspects: whether a troll lives on land or on sea, and the color of their blood. Sea dwelling trolls are considered the upper class, and accordingly their blood colors are considered the most "pure" of the spectrum. Sea and land dwellers have a bit of a feud going on, but sea dwellers are acknowledged as being the top of the crust (with the monarch of the entire empire being a sea dweller herself). Amongst all trolls, however, blood comes in an entire range of colors that decides your standing in society. To some extent blood color also determines other factors: trolls with "purer" or "higher" blood colors tend to be more prone to violence and insanity (though this is not a hard rule), and "lower" blood colors are more likely to develop psychic abilities of growing power the further "down" you go. Some trolls (generally the lower classes and especially the young) don't take this blood-caste system very seriously, while others consider it the basis for any and every social interaction. From this universe, Equius and 11 other young trolls decided to divide into two groups to competitively play a game: Sgrub. Sgrub is an immersive multiplayer virtual-reality game developed by one of the group based on some strange technology fished out of nearby ruins. As it turns out, the game was far more involved than Equius or any of the other players knew: it would determine the fate of their entire universe, and success would be rewarded with the creation of another. As the game continued and things heated up, it became apparent that the game had anticipated their team structure and predestined the two teams to link into one, coming together to defeat the game's final boss. Sgrub works in a strange dimension known as the Incipisphere where it bends time and space as it sees fit. The Incipisphere consists of several parts and various planets (again breaking space and time to create exactly one planet tailored for each player), a dark and light kingdom, a ring of asteroids to destroy the player's home planet, and a font of endless creative energy called Skaia. The world of Sgrub and the Incipisphere are difficult to explain, because virtually everything is predetermined by the game based on the universe it is being played in, the players their selves, and the actions they both have taken and will eventually take. Equius and the other trolls managed to win their session of the game, but before they could claim their prize, an immensely powerful creature from the very universe they just created hopped dimensions and attacked. The troll's existence then became a matter of hiding out on an asteroid as, as far as they know, the last trolls alive, to either be found out and exterminated or to wait for a desperate gambit they aren't even certain will work. Personality Equius is the quintessential troll and would have no issues telling you as much ("troll" in this case referring to his race rather than a person who pesters others on the internet for amusement). Quick to anger and judge with a stunning xenophobic streak, he consciously and intentionally exemplifies everything about their culture's upper class. Hierarchy and order are extremely important to him no matter how arbitrary. While it might seem that he is arrogant, this is actually a result of his extremely narrow worldview: Equius is not ordering you around because he feels he personally is better than you, but rather that he just outranks you in the natural order. He holds a higher position and that's simply how life works. Conversely if Equius sees someone else as holding a higher status than himself, he will do almost anything they ask without question. Interestingly it would seem that he has considerable reverence for animals, likely because of the simple hierarchy inherent in the way that their food chains work. However, he is also a vegetarian. The only other thing Equius values as much as this established order is strength. Strength to hold power is the best, of course, but he values any sufficient display of might. In the pursuit of strength, order, and his place in said order Equius has developed a rather broad range of interests including admiring "fine art" (which would look curiously like furry pornography to humans), archery (which his great strength makes impossible without breaking any bow he touches), poetry, fist-fighting, construction of his own robots, and when forced into it, roleplaying. Games are generally considered frivolous unless there is something very important on the line. Equius is actually very serious in general and sometimes has trouble detecting sarcasm. Despite his social awkwardness, Equius is actually very intelligent (if not very cunning), able to design large numbers of complex robots merely to destroy them in fits of rage and exercising a robust vocabulary. This intelligence is fairly limited to "book smarts"; he has a bit of a one-track mind and is not particularly good with strategy. As the bags under his eyes would suggest, he does not sleep much. Equius's noble (in his mind at least) exterior hides a rather troubled individual on the inside. His fascination with hierarchy ventures into the fetishistic, with a (sometimes not so) secret love to both dominate others and be dominated himself. This furthermore extends into a paradoxical desire to maintain order at any cost while also seeing transgressions against that order as opportunities to punish - or be punished. His generally aloof demeanor is also a facade ready to crumble at a moment's notice. Socially speaking, even the smallest things can rub him in just the wrong way and cause him to fly into a panic attack or violent rage, during both of which he will sweat profusely and can only be calmed by someone he trusts deeply or, more commonly, breaking lots of things. Note that only social situations will set off this bomb, combat is more natural to him than peace and intellectual obstacles are seen as a challenge. Abilities & Weaknesses Strengths *'Mechanical Skill: On his home planet Equius was capable of building large quantities of robots of varying specifications. It is much harder for him to replicate his work here, lacking familiar materials or tools, but he still has a very solid knowledge of mechanics. *'Physical Strength:' Equius is abnormally, immensely strong, to the point where he is considered a freak even by adult trolls. His day-to-day life is complicated by the fact that even when using the minimal force he possibly can he still breaks his glasses, bruises others, and otherwise damages property on accident. This strength allows him to leap extremely great distances and destroy solid stone or metal with his bare fists. Note that in Singularity he is toned down a bit, as the freakish powerlevels displayed in Homestuck that he has to keep up with are pretty unfair in most settings and his constant breaking of everything is mostly played as a joke there. *'Fighting Ability:' Equius is not only strong. Trolls have a history of conflict and while dabbling in various aristocratic pasttimes he picked up some boxing experience. Weaknessess *'Physical Strength:' If something can be described as "fragile", Equius will break it practically by looking at it too hard. *'Temper:' As has been mentioned he also gets worked up extremely easily and is notoriously difficult to calm down. *'Social Awkwardness:' Equius has trouble dealing with situations that don't have a direct superior/servant dynamic and is prone to heavy, nigh uncontrollable sweating when upset. *'Respect for Order:' Furthermore, Equius will nearly unquestioningly obey anyone he acknowledges as a superior. *'Nepeta:' Finally, though he wouldn't admit it he would do literally anything to protect Nepeta from harm, and often goes out of his way to keep her even from things he sees as bad influences. Character Relationships 686 Ebullient Prism - Curious machine... Needlessly fussy. Karkat says it's evil? Seemed harmless enough. Ashley Williams - A human dares to treat me this way? She did relent eventually... Camille - Strange, but polite and far preferable to the humans. Would like to understand transformations better. Davesprite - One Dave human was bad enough. Dave Strider (Canon) - His insincerity is vexing, but he seems to lack ill-intent. Still a douche. Eridan Ampora - Higher blood, but a sea dweller; Begrudging respect. Gamzee Makara (AU) - TWO. HIGHBLOODS? d;hlsjhl;skjh Gamzee Makara (Canon) - If only the highblood would act more befitting of someone of his class, it would be perfect. Jade Harley - Robotic arm is intriguing and she has a way of just knowing things, but still a frivolous human. Karkat Vantas (Canon) - Bluh bluh huge douche, but he kind of influences if I'm homeless or not... Kimiko Ross - Does fascinating work. Social awkwardness, what's that of course she wants to talk to me! Nepeta Leijon - Moirails for life! Sollux Captor - Go eat some mind honey and jump off a cliff, lowblood. Sonic the Hedgehog - STRONG talking quillbeast... Outranks humans socially? Terezi Pyrope - As long as she stays out of my way. Tria - Seems trustworthy enough. Vriska Serket - Clearly classy and skilled... Why is she ostracised from the rest of the trolls? We need to fix this. See Also *MSPA Wiki Entry for Equius *Equius's Intro Post at Sing *Character Theme